HARVEY STACK'S NUMISMATIC FAMILY, PART 38

But in 1965 Stack's was excited to be awarded some major collections to sell at public auction. Some of the concerns of the previous year had abated and friends and clients once again looked to sell.

We started 1965 with the sale of the Dr. Moser Lyons Stadium Collection, which featured splendid United States gold, silver and copper coins. Following that sale, we offered a collection of very choice and rare items formed by Eugene Gardner. Eugene had a wonderful eye for quality, and he concentrated on well struck, lightly toned coins, which even today are considered among the finest known.

In spring 1965 we held our auction during the Metropolitan Numismatic Convention. Featured was the Grant Pierce Collection of United States gold, silver and copper coins, including date sets and rare mintmarks. Grant Pierce, a great friend of my father Morton, was the president of American Standard, one of the largest American plumbing supply companies. He was an avid fisherman and hunter, and could be seen in pictures in sporting magazines, as he enjoyed his hobbies so much. The gold coins were highlighted by his collection of $3 gold pieces mostly in glittering Proof. Pedigrees in the Grant Collection could be traced to various B. Max Mehl sales of the 1940s and 1950s (including the Renz Collection and the Atwater Collection) and to a number of Stack's name sales of the same period. We did not offer his sets of Indian Head and Saint-Gaudens coins, as he gave those sets to his grandson who lived in the Midwest.

Later in 1965 we sold the George Sealy Ewalt Collection of both foreign and United States coins, along with the Charles Kenzie Collection and the Henry Kingman Collection.

All in all, everyone in the Stack family and those who worked with us in the shop were kept very busy. Our Coin Galleries branch specializing in foreign and ancient coins was expanding. There was always cataloging to be done, buying and selling over the counter, as well as traveling to shows and to gather consignments. Uncle Norman was a dedicated cataloger and researcher, and he preferred to do his work in the office as opposed to traveling. My father was still active in the office, cataloging, overseeing operations, and dealing with clients. His health was failing, but he still tried to be in the shop whenever we were open. My cousin Ben and I did the majority of the traveling both to conventions and to meet with clients. Of course, all of us at Stack's were focused on building relationships with and working closely with collectors.

One customer we continued to work closely with was J.K. Lilly who was keeping active building his gold coin collection. During 1965 we were fortunate to find a good number of world gold coins to enhance the Lilly Collection. The number of coins he had acquired from 1951 to 1965 was well over 6,000 different gold coins of the world! He enjoyed adding different dates and mints from all periods that gold coins were struck. In early April, I made my customary delivery to him, helped him place the coins in the special coin trays designed for his growing collection. He told me, as he always did, that he was looking forward to stopping by on West 57th Street in the fall, when he was on his way back to Florida for the winter.

To read the complete article, see:
Harvey Stack Remembers: Growing Up in a Numismatic Family, Part 38 (https://www.stacksbowers.com/News/Pages/Blogs.aspx?ArticleID=3290)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HARVEY STACK'S NUMISMATIC FAMILY, PART 37 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n06a13.html)

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